Sweden Will Admit Children from Belsen Camp; Italian Children Restored to Jewish Groups

The Swedish Government has agreed to accept all orphans and sick children in the Belsen concentration camp, it was announced today by Dr. Joseph C. Hyman, executive vice-chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee. Children whose parents are ill will also be accepted. According to the latest information available, there are 14,000 Jews still in Belsen, of whom 800 are children. The children are housed in a separate block and their condition is known to be desperate.

At the same time, Dr. Hyman disclosed that all Jewish children who were hiden during the occupation of Southern Italy in monasteries and convents are now under Jewish supervision. He said that many of these children are now being cared for in a Jewish orphanage in Rome, while others are staying in Ostia. A summer camp and school has been opened at Monte Mario, while in Northern Italy Jewish orphanages are functioning in Milan and Turin. Thirty-one children were transferred from convents in Turin and Milan to J.D.C.-supported institutions.

In other areas many children who were cared for throughout the period of German domination have been returned to their own families by Christian institutions and families, the JDC official stated.